Executive Committee and Board Members (2015-2017)

Executive Committee

Brandi Hackett

Executive Committee Chair

Brandi is a Master’s level social worker specializing in older adults and their caregivers. Her experience ranges from bereavement care, psychosocial assessment, care management, and resource navigation. She has worked in multiple aspects of healthcare such as: oncology, skilled nursing, hospice, government benefits, and funeral services. In 2016, she launched her own consultation business called Life’s End Logistics LLC to provide trusted & valued education, support, and guidance to families facing or proactively planning for the tasks and challenges during the last season of life. As an advocate, she is on the front-line and fully aware of the current importance for health literacy to clients, caregivers, and the all those trying to best serve those in need

Henry N Young

Executive Committee Vice-Chair

Henry N. Young, PhD, is the Kroger Associate Professor in the Clinical and Administrative Pharmacy Department at the University of Georgia. His research interests include studying medication use behaviors, health communication, health services, outcomes, and minority and underserved populations. The overall theme of his work focuses on helping patients use medications safely and appropriately to improve their quality of life. Among the classes Henry teaches is “Social Behavioral Theory in Health Care.”

Christine Willis

Executive Committee Secretary

Christine Willis is the Director of Knowledge Management & Learning Resources at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, GA. Christine earned her Master’s in Library & Information Science from Kent State University and holds a Certificate of Advanced Study in Health Sciences Librarianship from the University of Pittsburgh. She oversees the Noble Learning Resource Center and provides research assistance to clinicians as well as consumer health information for patients and families. Her interests include health literacy, library services for people with disabilities, and teaching clinicians how to access and assess evidence-based research to be applied in their practice.

Iris Feinberg

Executive Committee Treasurer

Dr. Iris Feinberg is the assistant director of the Adult Literacy Research Center at Georgia State University. She has an extensive professional and philanthropic background in helping individuals find and use information to make well-informed decisions. She received her Ph.D. in 2015 from the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. Feinberg’s primary research interest is in health literacy.

Board of Directors

Rene Esler

Rene Esler designs and delivers health literacy and health communication programs addressing HIV prevention, treatment and care, intimate partner violence, emergency preparedness and vaccination awareness for state and federal agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Resources and Services Administration. She also worked internationally as an educational television producer in Morocco, a social marketing and behavior change communication consultant in Mali and Haiti, and a social protection advisor in Armenia. Rene is the Director of the Atlanta office for JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc., a public health management consulting and research organization dedicated to improving the health of individuals and communities in the US and around the globe.

Laura Hauser

Laura Hauser is the Literacy Services Officer for the DeKalb County Public Library. Through her work as well as her personal interest, Laura has been contributing to health literacy advances for almost two decades. She is on a number of local boards with the purpose of building awareness including Literacy Alliance of Metro Atlanta, Georgia Adult Literacy Advocates, and the Rural Library Project. Connecting policy and best practices with the people working “on the street” is what she is most interested in – since the continuum must include all provider groups and respond to all types of literacy barriers. Laura is also active in efforts to provide meaningful learning experiences for incarcerated persons.

Archna Patel

Archna Patel serves as an Instructional Designer for CDC’s Public Health Associates Program (PHAP). She is a health educator with extensive knowledge and experience in program development and distance-delivered educational programs, with an emphasis on health literacy. As a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES), she has worked on several research projects with Emory University and served as a research fellow with CDC working on surveillance programs. As an Instructional Designer, she specializes in developing and modifying content for online courses to ensure that the educational material is conducive for learning essential public health concepts.

Laurel Morrow

Dr. Laurel Murrow is an internist who feels passionate about improving communication between patients and health care providers. In a variety of roles, she seeks to demonstrate the principles of health literacy for medical learners. As faculty at the AU/UGA Medical Partnership, she created a community health curriculum to immerse medical students in the realities of their patients’ lives. As Associate Program Director of the internal medicine residency at Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital, she helps doctors in training recognize the importance of clear communication. Dr. Murrow also serves as the Medical Director of Mercy Health Center, where she oversees the provision of free care to 3000 low-income, uninsured patients in northeast Georgia.

Debbie Murray

Debbie Murray is the Associate Dean of Extension and Outreach at UGA’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences. In 2015, Debbie chaired the first National Health Outreach Conference, in Atlanta, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In 2011-2012, she served as the Kentucky Project Contact for the Health Literacy Partnership for the Division of Healthcare Quality Evaluation: The Joint Commission. In 2010, Debbie served as Co-Chair, for the first Kentucky Health Literacy Summit Planning Committee, Louisville, KY – where she worked with corporate partners to raise funds for Health Literacy Summits in Kentucky. She helps to strengthen health literacy in Georgia by utilizing her reach through the Extension Service in all 159 counties in the state.

Mendee Rock

Mendee Rock is Vice President of Membership Services of the Georgia Health Care Association, an association of long term care organizations. Mendee executes responsibilities under the GHCA strategic plan to enhance the ability of GHCA member facilities to provide competent and compassionate care to meet the ever-changing health care needs of Georgia’s elderly and disabled citizens. She has extensive background as a licensed nursing home administrator, professional speaker and consultant, and holds a masters degree in counseling psychology and doctoral studies in organizational management.

Don Rubin

Don Rubin serves as research scientist at UGA’s Center for Health and Risk Communication. He is also professor emeritus of Communication Studies and of Language and Literacy Education at UGA. He co-directed the NIH-funded Health Literacy on Wheels project. Don has authored over 100 publications focusing on health communication, intercultural communication, and teaching and learning. He is a member of the inaugural editorial board for Health Literacy Research and Practice. Recently Don’s work has focused on community-based health literacy issues such as helping consumers make informed decisions about obtaining, keeping, and using health insurance.

Kara Tarantino

Kara Tarantino is the VP of Marketing at Orthus Health, a wellness and metrics and insights company focused on minimizing the life consequences and cost of chronic disease. With more than 25 years in healthcare and communications, Kara is intuitively passionate about bringing health literacy messaging mainstream and developing trusted and actionable content for diverse audiences. Kara works with hospital marketers, providers, and others to help them build stronger relationships with their end-users by improving communications that impact the patient and employee experience.